


wouldn't dream of it

by erintoknow



Series: Aria-Rough Drafts [48]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, It's not a crime if it's against Capitalism, POV Female Character, POV Second Person, Trans Character, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 12:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21392110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erintoknow/pseuds/erintoknow
Summary: Honestly, this doesn't even deserve to count as a crime? More like a public service.
Series: Aria-Rough Drafts [48]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604665
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	wouldn't dream of it

“Adrestia.”

You don’t need to turn around, there’s no mistaking that little sunburst of focus. Just take a breath, don’t let your frustration show. Damn kid, you taught him better then that to just needlessly give himself away. “Herald. How’s the knee?”

A flash of irritation. Okay, that was a little low. “You’re coming with me.”

You jokingly raise you arms, palming a smoke bomb. “Why officer, I haven’t even d–done anything wrong.”

“Somehow, I doubt that.” Herald moves down towards you, cautious, ready for an attack. That’s your cue. Crush the smoke bomb in your hand and take off running. Hope he spends enough time hacking up smoke out of his lungs to let you get lost in the Los Diablos night.

Could you take Herald in a fair fight? Absolutely. He’s improved a lot even in the short time you were training with him, but you didn’t teach him _everything_. You felt guilty, not stupid. At the same time, you can’t afford a fight either. Can’t take the risk he’ll recognize your moves now. So running it is.

Honestly, Herald should be thanking you. It’s not like you were stealing from an orphanage. These tech conglomerates have been chewing up housing and pushing out homeless folk since before you ever set foot in the city. They’re as bad if not worse, than any villain you ever fought as Sidestep. So you swiped a box of prototype GPUs to prop up your cash reserves, so what? IBM isn’t even going to miss it. Hell, harassing them was practically a public service.

Assembling the regenerator is taking longer than you’d hope. The instructions were straightforward enough, but some of the components you need… You can’t exactly walk down to a computer parts store and order an industrial strength power converter. You’ll probably want to look into purchasing an electrical generator come to think of it. It’s going to look suspicious if a rinky-dink computer repair shop suddenly starts drawing a hundred kilowats of power.

All of that’s going to take money. You already had Jane via Rosie, start putting out feelers for both buyers and sellers. Now that you’ve got the product you can finally start making some progress again.

You turn into an alleyway, slowing down as you cast out for a feel of the surroundings. A raucous chorus preoccupied minds that the Rat-King shields you against. The plucky clarinet of Herald is nowhere to be found. No one knows you’re here. Thank god. Take a moment to reconnoiter your position with where Rosie is waiting with the get-away truck. Ideally you’d have come out of this with more than a single box clipped to your belt, but you’’ll take what you can get.

Best to avoid the streetlights. Let the black of your suit blend in with the gloom. From the back of the alley you scale the wall until you’re on the roof. Again, staying low, alert for Herald. Or any of the other Rangers. Doubtless they’ve all been alerted to you now. Do you warrant an all-hands on deck situation? You haven’t done anything nearly as dramatic as your museum debut. Well, except for hitting the Boulevard Casino you suppose.

Keep expecting some sort of other shoe to drop for that one. So far nothing. Not that you really believe Hollow Ground actually exists. Someone does though, Julia wouldn’t have stuck to it all these years if she wasn’t digging up _something_.

The Rat-King prods your attention as you jump across roofs. Something up, little guys? Catch a hint of panicked thoughts stretched taunt.

Muscle-memory takes over, it’s not up for debate. Another roof over on your left, the alleyway between what used to be a theatre and what will forever be Rozzi’s Bakery (Day-old bread, Fresh!). Someone down there. Just the one person?

Jump jets flare up as you leap off the roof, cape billowing back behind you, slowing your decent. Maybe it’s not bone-breaking but it’s not quiet either. Whomever’s panicking – a woman? – doesn’t pay you any mind. Too lost in their own fear.

Curled up against the dumpster, digging lines into her own skin. Bad drugs? Overdose? There’s more than a few needles scattered around, a clear green capsule in her hand.

“Hey–” You stop, the vocal filter is going to shoot any attempt to be soothing in the foot.You flip it off. “Hey, hey, you okay?”

Only the briefest of movement to acknowledge she heard you. Afraid. Hurting. Took something. Last chance to try? Her thoughts are too incoherent to piece much out of.

Slow approach. Hands visible. No sudden movements. You’re not about to take your helmet off, and your suit isn’t exactly the friendliest thing to have come at you in a dark alley. Reach out to her thoughts, try to slow the tempo. Deep breaths. The old lie of ‘It’ll be okay.’ She lets you take the capsule out of her hand.

Your heart drops as you do. Hero drug. You wish she had just overdosed. That would have been more survivable. “Hey… can you hear me?”

She groans, pained. Pained thoughts again at her own voice. And… heartbeat? The panicked fracture of her thoughts click into place. The hero drug resulted in some kind of hyper-sensitive hearing. That… might be survivable but she needs a hospital. Therapy.

“Um… do you have a name?” You wince, that’s not how you ask people’s names, idiot. She doesn’t say anything coherent in response but asking is enough to pick out her name from her thoughts. “Kim Ahn? …cool, cool.” You try to keep your voice calm, quiet. “It’s… gonna be okay,” you lie.

You pick up Herald’s triumphant note before he dives. If you dodge he won’t be able to stop before hitting her. Shit. Idiot. You grit your teeth and brace yourself. Turning in time to catch the weight of his fist against your arms. “Stop! Stop!” You hiss.

“Get away from her!” Herald drops into a combat stance, grounded but ready to launch. Just like you taught him. Well that’s just great.

You have the presence of mind to switch your vocal distorter back on. “She needs help.”

Herald narrows his eyes, not dropping his guard. “What did you do.”

“Nothing!” You hiss. “Found her like this.” You slowly raise the hand holding the drug capsule. “Took the hero drug.” That gets a reaction you didn’t expect. A whole parade of thoughts going ‘twang’ in Herald’s mind.

“She needs to go to a hospital.” He fidgets, glancing at Kim, still behind you. Worry, fear? Just want kind of person does he think you are? Oh yeah. The kind that breaks someone’s knee cap when they’re already down.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you.” You whisper back, “And keep your voice down. It affected her hearing.”

He blinks, taken by that. He lowers his voice. “How do you know?”

“I just do.” You toss the capsule over to Herald. He catches it out of the air. Glances at you before inspecting it. He’s tenser then you’ve seen him in months.“You could get her to the hospital faster than I could.” Quicker, and with fewer questions. A wanted terrorist dropping off a random woman suffering from the effects of the hero drug… well, her life is going to be difficult enough going forward already.

“Why do you care?”

“I–” You balk at the question. “That doesn’t matter?” You step backwards and out of the way, ushering Herald on. “Just go already.” You keep backing up until you hit the other wall of the alley.

“Don’t think this changes anything Adrestia.” Herald watches you, wary as he moves to pick up Kim in his arms.

“W–wouldn’t dream of it.”

As Herald ascends into the sky, you let out the breath you’d been holding. Really, this whole situation couldn’t have worked out for the better. Didn’t fight Herald. Didn’t lose your prize. Hopefully Kim will be okay. It’s better, really, that Herald bring her in. You’ve got no business saving people anymore.


End file.
